Looking for resources to support ks2 (yr5/6) maths

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

Hi,

My dtds are about to go to year 6. Looking at their reports I think that one area they could do with support is their 'problem solving.g skills' and 'mental problems'. Their results in recent sats papers they did for internal assessment purposes could be better.

Thing is I am not really sure what the format of these papers are so I don't know how to support them.

worth doing an internet search on ks2 maths, problem solving and mental maths. There area lot of free resources online.

I would say that it is probably pointless signing up to maths tutorial programmes like Whizz and Mathletics, because problem solving is such a small area. Mathletics however does have a section of problem solving which is very good, and teachers have access to lots of worksheets on this very issue.

This is a skill that doesnt seem to be taught well - children need to identify what is important information and ignore the irrelevent stuff - which usually stands out as important. I have come across worksheets online in the past that help you to search and identify what is and isnt important.

Problem solving is one of the areas that most children struggle with.

I think the teachers just have too much to get through with the curriculum and dont have time to go through problem solving in great detail because it is very time consuming. I also think children sometimes need good comprehension skills to interprete word problems.

two things that might be worth you trying out are what we call "worded problems" (stuff like there are eight apples in a box, how many will be in nine boxes, that level and a wee bit more challenging) and also 'mental maths tests' which is quick recall of tables, number bonds to 100, doubling, halving, quartering, time, weight, stuff like that.
Agree no to mathletics, Ed City and so on unless school already registered, too expensive for what they are otherwise
look into the national strategies to see what they are doing, and then look on sites [free] like "Primary resources" - will be loads of suitable stuff.

Ty.

They are ok at mental maths - but could be better but I know what to do to address that.

Teacher talks about some mental maths tests which are essentially worst problems with multiple sequential sums where you have to mentally store the answer between stages...I thought I had an idea of what she meant bit not 100% sure.

They get homework - which mostly addresses the numeric skills but not sure it takes it to that problem solving level - so wasn't sure what I was aiming at.

Will have a look at the resources tomorrow.

one I did with Y4 today in a mental maths quiz - was along the lines of "Joe took a number and added five, then doubled it. the answer was 18...find the Joe thought of" - basically that they do inverse operations (so work it out 'backwards' and start with 18, use opposite of doubling=halving, etc)
hope that makes sense

*mental maths tests are WORD problems

and obv i just omitted the word "number"...
y5 and y6 ones are more complicated than that and have larger numbers and/or more steps, but I used today's one because I haven't had time to forget it yet because it is more straightforward as an illustration

Illustrates point - but I could really do with some yr5/6 examples help me pitch at right level. Is there an online bank of these sorts of questions?

will go and have a quick hunt round :)
back in a bit, hopefully with links.
Hoping a proper y5-6 teacher turns up but you might have to bump tomorrow, they must all be in bed...

Tis fine. I'm off to bed now anyway!

www.kidzone.ws/math/wordproblems.htm

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/wordproblems/

www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsD1.htm

coolmath.com/algebra/Algebra1/

Some excellent sites but there are lots. I typed in KS2 Word Problems Year 6 and these came up

BBC bitesize, good for general
I love primary resources, here and more specifically here
Possibly some useful stuff on here, I tend to use it as quizes or 'fun' extension work.

Thankyou both. Will sit and have a proper rummaged thru thos later but they look perfect.

And I had forgotten all about woodlands junior! Fanatic site (not that the others aren't - I am just kicking myself that I hadn't thought about that one myself)